Virgin Money regular saver + flexible ISA

fromscratch

Hi guys, was wondering if anyone could help me with the Virgin regular saver (10% one) T&Cs. 

As I dripfeed from my flexible cash ISA, I want to retain the largest ISA allowance I can for  or 25/26. So I plan to empty some savings accounts (not just the Virgin one) to bring my balance up in the ISA just before April 5th and then put it back into taxable savings with higher rates than my ISA on April 6th. That way I will have more in the ISA for 24/25 and because I remove it in 25/26 I will have a bigger available allowance for 25/26, say 30k instead of 20k

The virgin regular saver says in the T&Cs that if you can't save one month, you can catch up over the following months. So I was going to drain the 2k I have in it, and then put it back later. I thought I would check with them on chat and they were quite confused and said I could never go over the £250 limit, and that's where I had to leave it with them. 

So has anyone done this- taken their whole balance out and then replaced the whole balance at a later date?

Thank you

BikingBud

fromscratch said:

Hi guys, was wondering if anyone could help me with the Virgin regular saver (10% one) T&Cs. 

As I dripfeed from my flexible cash ISA, I want to retain the largest ISA allowance I can for  or 25/26. So I plan to empty some savings accounts (not just the Virgin one) to bring my balance up in the ISA just before April 5th and then put it back into taxable savings with higher rates than my ISA on April 6th. That way I will have more in the ISA for 24/25 and because I remove it in 25/26 I will have a bigger available allowance for 25/26, say 30k instead of 20k

The virgin regular saver says in the T&Cs that if you can't save one month, you can catch up over the following months. So I was going to drain the 2k I have in it, and then put it back later. I thought I would check with them on chat and they were quite confused and said I could never go over the £250 limit, and that's where I had to leave it with them. 

So has anyone done this- taken their whole balance out and then replaced the whole balance at a later date?

Thank you

I think you are mistaken on the Ts&Cs. From Virgin:

Are all ISAs flexible?
Not all ISAs are flexible, however here at Virgin Money our Easy Access Cash ISAs are fully flexible. This means you have the freedom to make deposits and withdrawals as often as you like as long your total deposits don’t exceed the ISA allowance for that tax year.

fromscratch

BikingBud said:

I think you are mistaken on the Ts&Cs. From Virgin:

Are all ISAs flexible?
Not all ISAs are flexible, however here at Virgin Money our Easy Access Cash ISAs are fully flexible. This means you have the freedom to make deposits and withdrawals as often as you like as long your total deposits don’t exceed the ISA allowance for that tax year.

I haven't mistaken the terms and conditions from Virgin. I have a flexible ISA with Chip and a Regular Savings account with Virgin Money. I do not have an ISA with Virgin, I am funding my Virgin regular saver from my flexible Chip Cash ISA by drip feeding each month. I want to withdraw the whole amount from Virgin to put into Chip for this tax year, and then deposit the full amount back into Virgin once the tax year changes. 

Hope that makes it clearer?

I went on chat earlier and the customer services didn't have a clue what I was talking about. The key facts document says this

• The maximum balance you can earn interest on increases each month by £250. If you do not manage to save your full £250 in any month, you can pay more in the next or future months.

But I wanted to check with them and they said I wouldn't be able to despot more than 250 in a month, or I could but I would earn no interest. And then they cut me off

surreysaver

BikingBud said:

fromscratch said:

Hi guys, was wondering if anyone could help me with the Virgin regular saver (10% one) T&Cs. 

As I dripfeed from my flexible cash ISA, I want to retain the largest ISA allowance I can for  or 25/26. So I plan to empty some savings accounts (not just the Virgin one) to bring my balance up in the ISA just before April 5th and then put it back into taxable savings with higher rates than my ISA on April 6th. That way I will have more in the ISA for 24/25 and because I remove it in 25/26 I will have a bigger available allowance for 25/26, say 30k instead of 20k

The virgin regular saver says in the T&Cs that if you can't save one month, you can catch up over the following months. So I was going to drain the 2k I have in it, and then put it back later. I thought I would check with them on chat and they were quite confused and said I could never go over the £250 limit, and that's where I had to leave it with them. 

So has anyone done this- taken their whole balance out and then replaced the whole balance at a later date?

Thank you

I think you are mistaken on the Ts&Cs. From Virgin:

Are all ISAs flexible?
Not all ISAs are flexible, however here at Virgin Money our Easy Access Cash ISAs are fully flexible. This means you have the freedom to make deposits and withdrawals as often as you like as long your total deposits don’t exceed the ISA allowance for that tax year.

But a deposit is new money. Paying in money previously withdrawn from a Flexible ISA is replacement money.

fromscratch

surreysaver said:

But a deposit is new money. Paying in money previously withdrawn from a Flexible ISA is replacement money.

Hello, thanks for your reply! Yes, it won't be new money in the Chip ISA as it already came from the Chip ISA this year.

But also I am not worried about the ISA bit, I understand that, I am just worried about losing the amount of money I had in the regular saver if they won't let me deposit it back into the regular saver. Because it is paying 10% interest I don't want to lose 10% interest on the £2000 I have in it so far and have to start again from £250.

surreysaver

I also don't get how Virgin say in that link if you transfer an ISA it loses it's flexibility. Yes it would if you transferred it to a non-flexible ISA, but if you transfer to a flexible ISA it retains (or gains) flexibility.

Section62

surreysaver said:

I also don't get how Virgin say in that link if you transfer an ISA it loses it's flexibility. Yes it would if you transferred it to a non-flexible ISA, but if you transfer to a flexible ISA it retains (or gains) flexibility.

I think it is a badly phrased "If you transfer your ISA before re-depositing funds you have withdrawn flexibly in the current tax year then you won't be able to pay those funds back into your ISA with the new provider"

In a sense that could be called a loss of flexibility, but not really.

danny13579

fromscratch said:

I went on chat earlier and the customer services didn't have a clue what I was talking about. The key facts document says this

• The maximum balance you can earn interest on increases each month by £250. If you do not manage to save your full £250 in any month, you can pay more in the next or future months.

But I wanted to check with them and they said I wouldn't be able to despot more than 250 in a month, or I could but I would earn no interest. And then they cut me off

From what I see in the T&Cs, if you have £2,000 in the Virgin Regular Saver and withdraw it, and then put the £2,000 back in you will receive interest after a month on £250, on the other £1,750 you will earn no interest.
You won't go back to receiving interest on the full £2,000 until 8 months later.

What they mean by being able to pay more in future months is that instead of paying in £250 in month 1, £250 in month 2, £250 in month 3...you could pay in £50 in month 1, £50 in month 2, £650 in month 3...but the maximum interest you can get is on £250 and increases by a maximum of £250 per month.

It doesn't mean you can take out £2,000 and put it back in and be back getting interest on your £2,000. You start again from scratch.

Well that's my interpretation, First Direct do a similar thing with their regular saver.

fromscratch

surreysaver said:

I also don't get how Virgin say in that link if you transfer an ISA it loses it's flexibility. Yes it would if you transferred it to a non-flexible ISA, but if you transfer to a flexible ISA it retains (or gains) flexibility.

I think the flexibility only applies to that one ISA you have in one year. From what I can gather. 

fromscratch

danny13579 said:

From what I see in the T&Cs, if you have £2,000 in the Virgin Regular Saver and withdraw it, and then put the £2,000 back in you will receive interest after a month on £250, on the other £1,750 you will earn no interest.
You won't go back to receiving interest on the full £2,000 until 8 months later.

What they mean by being able to pay more in future months is that instead of paying in £250 in month 1, £250 in month 2, £250 in month 3...you could pay in £50 in month 1, £50 in month 2, £650 in month 3...but the maximum interest you can get is on £250 and increases by a maximum of £250 per month.

It doesn't mean you can take out £2,000 and put it back in and be back getting interest on your £2,000. You start again from scratch.

Well that's my interpretation, First Direct do a similar thing with their regular saver.

Thank you so much for your reply, that is actually very useful. Thank you for taking the time to help me look into this, I very much appreciate it

BikingBud

Nope you've baffled me.

You will only get £20k ISA allowance per year.
Banked money + interest brought forward does not affect following year's allowance but provided it remains within the ISA wrapper the full balance will accrue interest.

But if that is not your concern then I think what you're saying is:

• Remove funds from maturing Virgin monthly saver, includes interest - OK
• Place into flexible ISA with Chip - OK what rate are you expecting? As existing customer 4.32%?
• Remove from flexible ISA to pay monthly saver with Virgin - Max £250 per month to get @10% - https://uk.virginmoney.com/savings/questions-and-answers/regular-saver-exclusive/#how-much-money-can-i-pay-into-my-regular-saver-exclusive-in-a-calendar-month
• Those Tc&Cs also seem very straightforward - you can get interest on a cumulative amount, maximum £250 per month:
•  
• I understand that the month 2 scenario is what they were explaining, you are short of the maximum by £50 and can top that up later in the year.
  
• But if you put say £2000 into the account you will only get interest on the full £2000 from month 8.
• If you stick to £250 per month for the 12 months then the projected balance is £3,162.40 but this product matures 31 Jul 25 so I assume you are already well down the path. 
• Old money does not accrue interest on Virgin as it matures after 12 mths.
• Is this where you wish to withdraw the £2000?
• If you want to remove the full amount and then expect to pay it all back then I feel that would be considered closing the Virgin account.

What interest would you get leaving it in the Chip ISA? I reckon for £2000 - £86.40
If you remove it all from Chip:

Please note: If you transfer your full balance out of the Chip Cash ISA, you will no longer be able to redeposit or transfer funds, and your account will be closed.

So a potential £80 extra interest max according to Virgin. But not really sure if that is what you are trying to achieve and closure of the account would clearly reduce that.